We have been in Pristina, Kosovo for just over three weeks now. It’s pretty challenging to summarize everything so far. So many new things and initial observations have occurred within these first weeks.

The most outstanding observation is the degree to which daily life in Kosovo is permeated with politics and development issues. Surely, this is heightened by the fact that our fellowship is at a political think-tank/government monitoring organization so we think about these issues everyday. But I see it everywhere outside the office as well; in the left-wing political graffiti that plasters every street corner, in the nightly water shortages as a result of over-urbanization, or in the political debates that float between locals in cafes, cafes which are crowded at all hours of the day as a result of the 40% unemployment rate (free time = espresso time!). Politics is in the air. I guess I wasn’t expecting it all to be so apparent and pervasive. But on the other hand, I guess that is the reality of newfound independence.

For anyone not too familiar with current events in the Balkans (which includes myself, before doing the research for coming here), Kosovo declared independence in February 2008. Historically, Kosovo has struggled for independence from Serbian authority. In the late 90s, ethnic tensions escalated, eventually leading to NATO’s intervention in 1999. Kosovo was thereafter placed under the administration of a UN mission called UNMIK, which has remained in the country for almost ten years now. Since independence, there has also been the introduction of several other international organizations here, namely the ICO and EULEX, working in (semi?) cooperation with the local government on different aspects of Kosovo’s transitional independence. It’s quite an interesting topic in international law. There is this web of international organizations, all working under different international documents, and it is unclear who exactly does what.

This is precisely the issue that Sondra and I will be working on for our host organization, the GAP Institute (www.gapinstitute.org). GAP’s broad mission is to make information and analysis of local political, economic and social issues available to the citizens, to bridge the gap between government and people. Our main project is to write a policy brief about the role of international organizations in Kosovo: what is each organization responsible for? From where do they derive their authority? How do they overlap, cooperate and/or conflict with the other organizations and the local government? So for these past weeks, we have spent most of our time developing questions and then interviewing officials from all of the different international organizations. We’ve also attended a few roundtable conferences about related issues (e.g. Kosovo’s representation in international agreements such as CEFTA, the development of Kosovo’s constitutional court). It is pretty exciting to have such close contact and direct involvement with the subjects of our study. I suppose that’s the whole benefit of such internships.

The director of GAP is also interested in having us coordinate a workshop, with the purpose of engaging civil society on an issue of particular interest to us as Canadian law students. After a heated office meeting about recent media threats against a local independent journalist for criticizing the government (http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/20042/), we are thinking about doing the workshop on freedom of expression. Our State & Citizen professors will be proud. I guess this project will develop more later.

As has probably already been noted, this weekend Sondra and I got the chance to visit Marlene and Parisa who are doing their internship in Belgrade. It was quite insightful to get a taste of both sides of the conflict. I was totally surprised to see how prevalent, and passionate, the Kosovo issue is among Serbians. At the Serbian football game that we went to, the whole stadium began chanting “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia”.

Another interesting thing to note is the pro-American sentiments here. Before coming, people told us that Kosovo was fervently pro-American, as a result of NATO intervention and American support for Kosovo. And it is definitely apparent. One of first days in town, what we have dubbed Joe Biden day, the famous VP visited Kosovo. Billboards of Biden were put up at major intersections, American flags were strung through the lampposts and all the school children got the day off, cheering through the streets with American flags to welcome the his visit.
On that note, upon finding out that we are Canadian rather than American, a friendly local commented “well, that’s not too bad”.

So that is what’s been happening so far, in the context of this newborn country. As cliché as it sounds, it is truly an exciting time to be in Kosovo.